It only gets more embarrassing for Mayor Eric Adams’ comically toothless “crackdown” on the town’s out-of-control sidewalk scaffolding scourge.
After Adams announced a “Get Sheds Down” program last week to cut back the variety of construction eyesores that appear to face eternally, Post columnist Howard Husock revealed that NYCHA, the town’s public housing authority, has more long-standing sheds in place than any private landlord — 26 miles of them.
But immortal-seeming, city-owned scaffold abominations aren’t only at quasi-autonomous, cash-strapped NYCHA locations.
In addition they blight office buildings which can be 100% owned and managed by City Hall itself.
Realty Check found Public Disgrace No. 1 at 2 Lafayette St., a century-old, 21-story, 350,000 square-foot property across the road from the Municipal Constructing.
Scaffolding has surrounded 2 Lafayette on all 4 sides — along Lafayette, Elk, Duane and Reade streets.Stephen Yang
The scaffolding sheds have been up since 2017, in line with Department of Buildings records.Stephen Yang
It’s run by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, a sprawling bureaucracy with a $1.3 billion annual budget and a couple of,615 employees.
DCAS is charged with acquiring, selling and leasing city property, its website says.
You’d think that with the actual estate-driven priority, it might know tips on how to properly maintain its own structures and fix any potentially dangerous flaws in a timely fashion.
But sheds have long surrounded 2 Lafayette on all 4 sides — along Lafayette, Elk, Duane and Reade streets.
The gloomy tunnels cover storefronts and subway entrances and supply refuge for dope-smoking vagrants who harass people coming to work.
Town’s Department for the Aging has offices at 2 Lafayette, however the sheds appear to be ageless.
They’ve been up since 2017, in line with Department of Buildings records. Sources in neighboring buildings — and inside 2 Lafayette St. itself — said they rarely if ever see any facade work being done.
2 Lafayette St. is run by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.Stephen Yang
For good measure, the sheds which can be presupposed to protect passers-by from falling debris could be dangerous themselves.
The DOB records show an open shed violation at 2 Lafayette from April 5, which states “pedestrian protection doesn’t meet code specifications” as a consequence of “deteriorated mud sills in multiple locations throughout shed.”
A DCAS spokesman said the sheds were put as much as “mitigate unsafe conditions for the general public” as required under Local Law 11, the 1998 laws that toughened earlier rules for façade inspections every five years for each constructing no less than six stories tall.
Mayor Adams announced a “Get Sheds Down” program last week to cut back the variety of sidewalk scaffolding “sheds.”Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
The constructing has “planned façade work and will likely be entering the design phase inside the following six weeks.
Design will take an estimated 18 months,” the rep said.
As for the open DOB violations, “DCAS is working with its contractor to evaluate the violations and make repairs.”
At this rate, Adams will solve the migrants crisis first.